Introduction

The newspaper is often called “a daily miracle,” a puzzle that, somehow, despite all the odds, comes together and lands on doorsteps or on newspaper websites without fail. But a pay study conducted by the Gannett Regional Union finds no miracle at six northeastern newspapers owned by Gannett, the nation’s largest newspaper chain.

Instead, there’s an ongoing disaster when it comes to what Gannett pays its female and non-white journalists who face a de facto pay ceiling and stagnant wages not seen by their white, male counterparts. 

Despite Gannett’s stated commitment to diversity, the analysis finds:

• Gannett pays its non-white journalists an average of $11,500 less than their white counterparts at these papers. 

• Senior female journalists make median full-time salaries that are $9,500 less than men the same age.

• The median salary for white male journalists is more than $12,200 greater than that of minority women journalists.

If journalists of color stay at these Gannett papers, their pay plateaus. If female journalists stay, they can expect to be paid less than their male counterparts. 

In 2020, Gannett pledged to hire and promote more women and employees of color to reflect national demographics and the communities they serve. 

In 2021, Gannett reported its newsrooms were 58% male and 79% white. Our study of six newsrooms found 64% of employees were male and 77% were white. 

The company announced “inclusion, diversity and equity are core to our business,” and all employees should have “equal opportunities to thrive.” 

“(W)e are committed to … driving positive change. While this will, at times, mean addressing and combating systemic barriers and having uncomfortable conversations, we believe silence is not an option. We want to … become a leader not just in what we do, but who we are as a company,” CEO Mike Reed said.

Gannett claims it is a beacon for diversity in the workplace. Our numbers prove otherwise. The inequity is baked into how editors look at their workforce. At a bargaining session this summer, when the Guild set its demand – equal pay for equal work – a Gannett editor rolled her eyes and laughed out loud. That is the Gannett management culture.

Pay equity matters. It matters because it sets a culture of fairness across the company, a reasonable expectation that -- no matter whose byline or photo credit is attached – a job done will be paid at a fair and equal rate.

Purpose of Study 

This study was undertaken by the Gannett Regional Union, a coalition of six NewsGuild bargaining units representing journalists across New York and New Jersey. This includes four units that certified in 2021 – The Record Guild, the Atlantic DOT Guild, the Hudson Valley News Guild and the APP-MCJ Guild – as well as two legacy union shops, the Rochester Newspaper Guild and the Utica Newspaper Guild. Our nearly 200 members unionized, in part, due to low and inequitable pay across our newsrooms. This study is based on union and non-union employee data from the collective NewsGuild shops requested from Gannett in August 2022.     

Key Findings 

Gannett Regional Union’s findings were consistent with those of other NewsGuild-CWA shops that undertook similar reviews of union membership and corresponding salary information. On average, staffers who are women and minorities earn significantly less than their white, male counterparts. The problem becomes starkly worse among more senior journalists, where we see a significant drop off of both female journalists and journalists of color. The data points to the fact that while Gannett may be hiring a diverse workforce among its lowest paid employees – often college graduates or early career journalists – it is not meeting very basic needs to advance their careers within Gannett.

In essence, Gannett’s policies are creating a “churn and burn” situation, where managers treat talented and diverse but early career journalists as a disposable commodity rather than fostering a workplace where they see our newsrooms as a place to spend an extended portion of their career. Likewise, Gannett is either not invested in recruiting diverse, veteran journalists or has let its newsrooms falter to a point that veteran journalists no longer view them as a place to advance their careers.  

• Non-white journalists make $11,500 less than their white counterparts. 

• The median salary for white male journalists is more than $12,200 greater than that of minority women journalists.

• White men make up 53% of Gannett’s workforce across the New York/New Jersey newsrooms that are the focus of this study.

• Non-white, veteran journalists make more than $12,700 per year less than their white counterparts and are outnumbered by nearly 9 to 1. 

• Median annual salaries for minority journalists at Gannett stagnate in the low $40,000 range through their 40s while their white counterparts continue to see pay increases.

• Experienced female journalists make median, full-time salaries that are more than $9,500 less than men of the same age. The gender pay gap coincides with sharp declines in women participating in Gannett’s workforce.

• Gannett’s female workforce starts experiencing gender pay gaps as early as Year 6. Women entering their mid-career years with Gannett are paid median, full-time salaries that are more than $8,300 less than their male counterparts with similar years of service. 

Methodology

This study was based on salary and demographic data acquired through a request for information to Gannett Co. Inc that was fulfilled on Aug. 16, 2022. The data included newsroom employees’ pay, age, gender, race, job title and years of service at Gannett. The Gannett Regional Union sought to analyze data of the newsroom staff it represents. The data provided by Gannett, however, included several employees who are not members of the Gannett Regional Union and were removed from analysis (Of note: Those non-union, non-managerial employees removed from the analysis only show further anecdotal evidence of the gender- and race-based pay discrepancies cited throughout this study that the Gannett Regional Union hopes to eliminate). 

The study included employees who work at unionized Gannett news sites largely across New York and New Jersey. The one exception is the Atlantic DOT Guild, which has staff members who work alongside newsrooms in those two states along with Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Virginia.

The study focused on full-time employees. In most cases, part-time staff was excluded because the data included too few of them to maintain their anonymity. The data also included six employees who did not self-identify a race. They were also excluded for the same reason.

We used median pay instead of average to more accurately reflect the range of salaries in a workplace. The median is the midpoint between the higher paid half of employees and the lower paid half. Average, on the other hand, can obscure the middle range of salaries when an extreme high or extreme low salary swings the calculation.

We used annual pay without factoring overtime for both hourly and salaried employees. 

The number of employees represented by the Gannett Regional Union in each newsroom ranged from 77 to 9. The size of each newsroom should be taken into account. One employee’s pay and demographics can impact the analysis more in a smaller newsroom than in a larger one.